Ignition control apparatus



K. R. BLAKE IGNITION CONTROL, APPARATUS Filed la 14, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. V

K. R. BLAKE IGNITION CONTROL APPARATUS Filed lay 14, 1937 April 9, 1940.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 :fl] INVENTOR KJE. 54,4158

ATTORNEY.

Patented Apr. 9, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT o-rri cs.

2,196,698 I lemon comm. mm'rns Kenneth 3. Blake, Detroit, Mich. I Application May 14, 1937, Serial No. 142.645

1 cum. on. 123'l48) This invention relates to control means for 10 potential below the requirements thereof as are likely to be occasioned by simultaneous use of other portions of the circuit such as the starting circuit.

when an automobile is at rest and it is desired 15 to start the engine, operation of the starter consumes a very substantial percentage of the possible power output of the battery causing a severe drop in potential at the gaps or the spark plugs.

spark of increased intensity. It is, therefore, an

so object of the invention to provide means for automatically controlling the circuits in order to prove the optimum electrical conditions ior automobile operation. 1

Ii'he electrical circuit or an automobile includes as a battery, a line from the battery to a primary coil with the manual switch-"and a resistor in the line, a line from the primary to the arms 0! the distributor, asecondary coil, and a line leading from the secondary to the shaft of the distributor.

4c The output of the secondary is dependent upon the induced current from the primary and hence I! the resistor is shunted the output of the primary will be materially increased. It is, therefore, an object or this in'vention to provide means, both electrical and mechanical, which will respond to one or morevariations from normal operation to shunt the resistor. As will be more fully described, thevariations to which the shuntlng devices maybe responsive are: during engine starting, during acceleration and during abnor-' mally high engine speeds.

A clear understanding'oi the various modes of altering the circuits will become hereinafter more rully apparent as reference is had to the accompanying drawings wherein my invention is illustrated in several forms and in which Fig. 1 is a diagram of an engine ignition circuit with my invention incorporated.

Fig. 2 is a detail showing a modification of the 5 arrangement of the resistor of Fig. 1,

Fig. 3 is a modification of the diagram of Fig. 1, the operation of the accelerator pedal being employed as an electrical control means.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectional detail of the 10 mechanism of Fig. 3 which directly responds to the accelerator pedal, r Fig. 5 is a modification of Fig. 1 in which the generator acts asthe control means,

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section through the end 18 of the generator to which the control means is attached, i

. Fig. '7 is a diametric section taken along the line l--'| 01' Fig. 6, and

Fig. 8 is a modification of Fig. 5 wherein the coil .0 is modified. 4

More particularly when the ignition switchi is closed current flows from the, battery 2 through the lead 8, through a. resistor 6, through the lead 5 to the-primary 8 of the ignition coil, thence 35 through the line i to a terminal 8, thence to the breaker arm 9 of a conventional distributor it,

' through the contacts ii, and through the line l2 to 'a ground It. A secondary coil l4 grounded at Ii is connected by the line It to the distributor 3 shaft l1. tional.

The current flow from the secondary winding I4 is dependent upon the current flow in the primary 6. The new through the winding 6 can be 35 increased by shunting the resistance 4 as will'now be described.

At a point l8, between the ignition switch I- and To this point the circuit is conven- -the resistor l, a line 19 of a shunt circuit is connected. This shunt includes the line IS, a tero minal 20, a line 2|, contacts 22 and a terminal 24 in the line i. One of the contacts 22 is stationary and the other one is carried by a bi-metallic blade 2i whichis positioned in close proximity to the primary winding 6. v

g In operation, when the engine is cold the contacts 22 are closedso that upon energization of the starter motor (not shown) current to the distributor will flow .through the shunt circuit, by-passing the resistor 4. After the engine starts so the voltage and, hence, the current flow to the distributor will increase whereupon the winding 6v begins to heat. The bi-metallic arm 26 is set sufiiciently closel to the primary so that alter a short interval of time, which maybe predetermined, the contacts 22 will separate and all further current flow must occur through the resistor 4. So long as the eil'ective voltage remains at or above, say, six volts, suiilcient heat will be produced in the coil 8 to maintain the contacts 22 separated.

A further shunt circuit is capable of responding to engine acceleration when the contacts 22 are open to cut out the resistance 4. This circuit 10 consists of a line 28 connected to the terminal 28 of the line is, 2l and to a terminal in the base of a conductive spring arm 21 carrying a contact 28, a contact 23', and a line 38 which connects the contact 29 with the line 5 at 3l., The spring arm 21 carries a piece of insulation 32 for contact by a plunger- 33 fixedly secured to a piston 34. The piston 34 is movably contacted in a cylinder 35 subject'to the changing pressures in the intake manifold of the engine (not shown) by virtue of a line; A spring 31-urges the piston 34 outwardly against the direction of suction in the line 38.

During normal engine operation, the piston 34 is urged inwardly against the pressure of the 25 spring 31 by the vacuum in the manifold thus permitting the spring arm 21 to flex and to break contact of the contact points 28 and 29-. In the event of rapid acceleration of the engine, the

vacuum in the intake manifold, and hence in the 30 line 38, is lost to the extent that the spring 31 urges the piston 34 and the plunger 33 outwardly against the spring arm 21 thus closing the contacts 28 and 29 whereby the shunt circuit is completed and the resistor 4 by-passed.

35 In Fig. 2 the numbers 8o, l8a, 2 la, 22a, 23a, 24a

and 25a correspond to the numbers 8, I8, 2|, 22, 23, 24 and 25 respectively-oi Fig. 1. In the event that the bi-metallic arm 25a is not suflieiently .close to the winding 8 to be responsive thereto, 40 thearm may beenclosed in insulation and a resistor coil 38 wound therearound, this resistor being in parallel with the primary winding 8. In Fig.3, 39 indicates an accelerator pedal connected by a linkage 48 to an arm 41 of a switch device 42. This device has two terminals 43 I and 44. A contact plate 45 having an insulated portion 48 is mounted for rotation by the arm 41. When the accelerator pedal is depressed a sufflcientamount to rotate the insulated portion 48 o from contact with the terminal 44 the terminals and 44 arethen electrically connected. The remainder'of the circuit will now be described. 7 A battery 45 has a line 48 leading therefrom to an ignition switch 41, past a terminal 48 through a resistor 49, past a terminal 58, thence to the primary winding 5| of anignition coil. The circuit is conventional as was described in connection with Fig. 1 so that the complete showing and complete description is omitted. Leading from the terminal 48 is the shunt circuit which consists of a line 52, a terminal 53 a line 54 connecting the terminal 53 with the terminal 43, and a line 55 connecting the terminal 44 to the terminal 58. In operation, when the throttle 39 is sufficiently depressed to establish electrical connection between the terminals 43 and 44 the current flow is from the battery I through the lines 52 and 54 to the terminal 43, thence to terminal 44 and to' the terminal to the primary 5|. Theresistor 7 43 is thus shunted, the shunting occurring atany predetermined point of depression of the accelerator pedal 39 which corresponds, generally, to

veloped by the distributor breaker pointv at big a pre-determined engine power requirement.

In this circuit, a iurther shunt circuit may be 7 added, identical with thecircuit 28, 21, 23, 2 3, 33,

of Fig. 1. It is the circuit 280, 28a, 29a, 38a, 31a wherein the parts correspond as implied by the addition of the letter a. The vacuum switch device is'indicated by the numerals 38a and 3141.

Figs. 5, 6 and '7 illustrate a circuit in which 5 the resistor is by-passed at a predetermined engine speed. The original circuit is composed of battery 55. The manual switch 58, the resistor 51 and the primary winding 53, the complete circuit being the same as that illustrated in Fig. 1. From 10 a terminal 59 between the switch 58 and the resistor 51 a lead 88 extends through a terminal 8! and is thereafter connected to a coil 82 having a core 83 therein. A line 84 connects the solenoid coil 82 to a terminal 85 of a centrifugal switch 15 88. The switch parts are composed of a grounded shaft 81 which rotates at or proportionate to the speed of the engine and which carries a plate 88.

Oflset from the center of this plate 88 is a pin 88 upon which is journalled a horseshoe shaped 88 weight 18 having a contact brush 1| mounted near one endthereoi. A spring 12 urges the weight 18 in contacting position with a stop 13. As the shaft 81 rotates the weight tends to swing outwardly and to rotate about its journal pin 88 so that when 25 a sufllcient speed of rotation is attained the brush II will contact the terminal 85 and close the cir-' cult to the ground permitting a flow of current from the battery 55 through the line 88, and through the coil 82 thus affecting energization of so the solenoid 82, 83; An armature 14 pivotally mounted adjacent the core 83 will be drawn thereagainst thus closing the contacts 15. Leading from the terminal 81 is aline 18 to one of the contacts 15 and the armature 14 is connected by a 85 line 11 to the primary winding 58 at the terminal 18. It will thus be seen that when the switch 88 is closed, the flow of current may occur from the battery" through the line 88, the line 18, contact 15. The armature 14, line 11, and to the primary 4,9 winding 58 thus by-passing the resistance 51.

As a further means of by-passing the resistor 51, a lead 18 may be tapped into the line 88st the terminal 88 and connected through a vacuum switch 8i similartothevacuumswitchoii 'ig. 1, previously described, and then connected by a line 82 to the primary winding 53.

In Fig. '8, a circuit is shown which is capable of overcoming the tapering oi! oi the ignition potential at high speeds, which is due to unsaturau tion of the primary coil.

Inthiscasethe circuitisasiollows:

The battery 84 supplies a line 85 having an ignition. switch 88 and-a resistor 81 therein and which is connected to the primary winding a. The primary is in two parts, being vided at the terminal 89 where a line 88 leads th mm to the contactors, 9!. One of the contacts 8i is fixed and the other is carried by an armature 92 in circuit with a line 93 leading to the terminal 84- '0 or the distributor 35. A line from the top of the total primary coil leads to'a terminal 31 in the line 83 and hence to the distributor terminal 84. The armature 92 is subject to a: solenoid 820., 83a, connected into the line 15, in exactly the same 55 manner as was described in connection with Fig.

5 as to the armature 14, the solenoids 82, 83 and the allied parts of the circuit. It will thus be seen that the portions of the primary winding between the terminal 33 and the line 88 increases the total resistance of the circuit to a point greater than the resistance de portion of the primary winding between the reconditions; normal constant operating conditions,

sistor Bland the terminal 89 is used during normal operation of speed and/or low voltages during starting. When the engine is running at an average speed current therefor flows through the lower portion of the coil only. When the speed i of the engine is increased to the point where the centrifugal switch 66a functionsto energize the solenoids 62a, 63a the contacts 9| are broken and current then flows through the upper part of the primary winding, through the line 96 and to the distributor 95. Due to the fact that when the breaker points are operating at high speed they develop a resistance sufllciently high to decrease the average current flowing through the primary. Therefore, in order to keep the output up to normal the resistance must be increased along with the number of turns until the total number of ampere-turns developed are practically the same as when the speed is lower.

It will thus be seen that I have provided several ways of altering the resistance of'portions of the ignition system in response tovariations in speed characteristics of the engine, "speed characteristics may be defined as including idle the mechanically indicated speed as derived by the position of the throttle, the speed of a rotating engine shaft, the acceleration as defined by manifold vacuum and the like.

other applications of my invention will occur to those skilled in the art and I, therefore, desire to be extended protection within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is:

The combination of an ignition system for an internal combustion engine comprising a -source of current supply, the engine ignition circuit including a coil and a resistor between said coil and said'source of current supply, a shunt circuit around said resistor having a switch therein,

said switch being normally closed when the en-' gine is idle and during periods of engine starting, and means responsive to a predetermined temperature of said coil to open said switch, said 20 last named means being responsive to a coil temmm'nnnmxn. "so,

perature resulting from a flow of current therethrough of predetermined voltage. 

